Dead Man Walking

[Silus Xilarian]

There was a moment as Silus pulled his shirt off that self consciousness threatened to overtake him, manifesting itself as the slightest of hesitations before being overridden by the healthy dosage of liquid courage he had been consuming throughout the night. If Bette noticed or cared, however, she gave no indication, as she wasted little time planting her lips on his chest. He leaned back a little and closed his eyes, letting a quiet grunt of satisfaction slip. He laid there for a few moments, just enjoying what she was doing. He wasn't so drunk that his head was completely spinning, but he was far enough along that his sense of touch was somewhat muted, filtering out anything minor like the touch of the bedsheets against his skin or a the pillows under his head. With all that washed away, it only highlighted and enhanced what Bette was doing to him.

"Hey, come here..."

As she looked up toward him he reached down and guided her back face to face with him. He took a few moments to get lost in her eyes before pulling her down and kissing her again.

[Bette Davis]

Bette overbalanced and fell against him as they kissed, and started giggling uncontrollably. She rolled over next to him, head on his shoulder, still laughing.

"I wasn't planning this, you know," she said, once she'd managed to quell the giggles. "If I was, I wouldn't have worn a sports bra." Bette chuckled again, her hair nearly covering her face as she snuggled against him.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus put his arm around her and idly traced a path up and down her upper arm with the tip of his finger.

"Well one thing I'm well known for is being a gentleman, so I'll politely cover my eyes while you take it off."

[Bette Davis]

"Sure you will," she retorted, straddling him on the bed. "Really, you shouldn't watch, it's a nightmare gettin' these things..." Bette struggled a little, her hair snarled in the tight mass of elastic and fabric that barely fit over her head, "...off."

She tossed the bra over her shoulder, landing it almost inside the ice bucket, and bent down over Silus for a longer, deeper kiss that evolved into a much more strenuous activity.

A few hours later Bette was snoring on the bed next to him, a pillow clutched to her chest as she lay there, completely and utterly relaxed.

[Silus Xilarian]

It was the middle of the night when Silus rose gently from his sleep. For a moment he was confused about where he was. With the room dark and Bette laying beside him, he thought for a moment that they were back on that shuttle heading for Telos IV. As he sat up and got his bearings about him, he was able to piece his memory back together. It puzzled him why his mind would go back to that specific point, but then it hit him. This is the first good sleep I've had since then...

He looked back at Bette and for a moment considered prying the pillow out of her arms and waking her up for another go. The nearly empty bottle beside him, however, suggested that she could probably profit from a few more hours sleep. He slid quietly out of the bed, being as careful as he could not to wake her. He grabbed the bottle off the nightstand and carried it with him. There was a chair next to the bed and he silently pulled it along as well as he made his way to the window. He took a drink and set the bottle down beside him. The city below them was still bustling, but that wasn't where his attention went. Instead he looked up at the sky. The light's from the city drowned out all but the brightest stars, but Silus decided that the night sky was still nice enough to look at.

The offer Bette had made to allow him to rejoin the Shadows weighed heavily on him. Even after she'd rescued him from Malastare, Silus was convinced that his life had ended the moment he ate that stun blast on Telos IV. Until she'd made that offer, he'd considered himself a dead man, and had just been looking for the best way to make it official. Tonight, she'd given him another option. The coin now had two faces. Life or death.

He took another drink and sighed.

[Bette Davis]

Bette opened overly dry eyes and dislodged her tongue from the roof of her mouth. She rolled over in the bed, flopping her arms over to where Silus should have been and finding nothing.

She sat up, looking around blearily for something to drink.

"Water," Bette croaked, stumbling out of bed and padding around naked in search of a clean glass she could drink out of.

[Silus Xilarian]

"There's a few bottles over on the table."

Silus was still in his chair, looking out the window. Without looking back, he pointed over to the nearby table where two glass bottles of water were sitting.

[Bette Davis]

She grabbed a bottle of water, then snagged the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around herself as she walked over to where Silus was sitting. Leaning against the window near the wall, Bette looked back at him while she opened the water and took a long sip.

”Beautiful night,” she said.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus was deep in thought when Bette moved over to the window, and it took a moment for him to register that she was standing there. As he looked over toward her, his expression softened into a warm smile.

"It has some competition."

He gave her a bit of a wink before lifting the nearly empty bottle of liquor off the floor.

[Bette Davis]

She drained the water and set the empty bottle on the nearest horizontal surface, taking a few steps forward and settling into Silus' lap. Curling up, Bette rested her head on his shoulder, the sheet haphazardly wrapped around her still.

"Credit for your thoughts?"

[Silus Xilarian]

He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her tighter against him, while the other arm draped over the side of the chair. His hand kept contact with the bottle on the floor beside him as if he were worried it would sneak away.

"I'm just thinking about what it will be like to be up there again."

It was partially true, that thought had certainly been on his mind. It wouldn't do either of them any good for him to put words to every thought in his head, so he decided to just give her the good ones.

"I hear you all are flying Defenders now. I remember back on the Relentless we Garrett would never let me have any because the tech was so new. I'd go in there and raise high holy hell and he'd say..." Silus added some extra gravel to his voice, "...Shadow Squadron isn't a bunch of gallo pigs!. You'll get them when i'm convinced they won't randomly blow up!"

He shook his head a little and laughed. As furious as he'd get with Admiral Garrett, he missed the old bastard.

"Then he turned around and gave twelve of them to Reaver squadron just to spite me..."

As they spoke his free hand had left the bottle alone and found its way under her sheet, idly rubbing her lower leg.

[Bette Davis]

Still buzzing from her earlier binge, Bette just let Silus talk. As his hand brushed up her leg and under the sheet she kissed his shoulder.

"There's nothing like being up there. You know how it is. The thrill of the chase." Bette snuggled closer as his fingers quested further up her inner thigh. "The feeling of the G-forces as you pull of a ridiculous move, putting the enemy in your sights." She put a hand on the side of his face to pull him down for a kiss, the sheet sliding down as his fingers made contact below.

"And when you get the kill you've been working toward..." Bette moaned a little, adjusting her position on his lap.

[Silus Xilarian]

“...it’s the best feeling there is....”

Silus moved past her face and started kissing her just below her ear. Every move his hand made elicited another moan from her, and hearing that was driving him wild. Somewhere in his mind, the broodiness that he’d been feeling only minutes before was now suffering a quiet death.

“...and after you’ve done it, all you want...”

His lips locked down on her neck again.

[Bette Davis]

"...is to do it again."

Bette arched her back as he kissed her neck, her half-drunk condition causing her to lose her balance on her perch and nearly tumble to the ground. Silus held her tightly, however, and she squirmed with pleasure from what he was doing to her.

"Oh gods," she managed, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling herself more upright against him, pressing her body against his and pulling his face into her breasts.

[Silus Xilarian]

With his face between her breasts, he happily moved his attention there. He planted a kiss on the side of her breast...

"...and again..."

Then the top...

"...and again..."

Before moving up to eye level with Bette again. They held eye contact for a short moment before Silus opened his mouth to speak, only to find himself kissing her once more.

[Bette Davis]

She lifted up and adjusted herself down on his lap, gasping against his mouth as they continued kissing. "I... I forgot what we were talking about."

Bette moaned into his neck, clinging tightly as they found a rhythm of existence that was theirs alone. The galaxy spun around their hotel room to a dizzying climax, leaving their bodies flushed with pleasure and damp with sweat.

[Silus Xilarian]

They spent a few minutes wrapped in each others arms, sharing the occasional kiss or caress but saying nothing, just enjoying the closeness while they caught their breathes. Silus finally felt his heart rate return to normal when he felt Bette nuzzle up against his neck to whisper in his ear.

"Got one more in ya, flyboy?"

The temptation ran as far as it could through his mind before running into a brick wall of exhaustion. He let out quiet laugh before turning to kiss her.

"If I go one more time you may have to carry me out of here."

He leaned up and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"I'm gonna grab a shower..."

[Bette Davis]

Bette settled back in the bed as Silus made his way into the refresher, and was soon sound asleep again.